ITL and qibla calc

[Nadim Shaikli <shaikli at yahoo dot com>]

I think I had promised to research this topic a bit (I also remember that
Thamer said he had a book on the topic), alas here goes.  This is what I've
been able to find on this topic after a bit of time researching the issue.

There has been a great deal of work done on the subject of Qibla calculation
by Dr. Hussain Kamal Al-Deen (I'm not sure of his name's spelling).  From
what I've read from various books, he's the ultimately authority on this
topic (he had passed away in the mid 70's I believe), yet I was not able to
find much info of his work or on him on the internet -- maybe you could dig
up some of his books (it's really disheartening to see Arab scholars have NO
presence on the 'net).

Here are some links that might serve useful in passing that outline simple
formulas,

  http://www.bohra.net/archive/qibla_calc.html
  http://www.islamworld.net/qibla.html

The above two links note the need to enter Magnetic Declination
(which is defined as "difference between the True North direction
and the Magnetic North").  Here is a site that does it for you
(I didn't try to see how it's calculated, but with a Dr of Astronomy
amongst us, I don't think this would be too difficult - congratulations
Youcef and welcome back !!).

  http://www.geolab.nrcan.gc.ca/geomag/mirp_e.shtml

Hope this helps.

Salam.

 - Nadim


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